


Home Fires Burning

by respoftw



Series: 2018 Hurt/Comfort Bingo [9]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Comfort, M/M, Pining John Sheppard, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 07:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15658611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: John notices that Rodney is struggling to adjust so he tries his best to help





	Home Fires Burning

They’d rescued Rodney from the cell he’d been held in four weeks ago.The rescue was accompanied by all the backslapping and relived smiles that getting someone home safe inspired.John didn’t grudge them that, the Pegasus Galaxy was a hard place to live and wins were something to celebrate. John had done the maths once and the odds of coming back unharmed from even the mildest of milk runs was bad enough.When you factored kidnapping into the equation...well, John had spent every second of the week Rodney was gone hyper aware of just how bad the odds of getting him back alive were.

He would never usually grudge anyone their celebrations.

The thing was, John seemed to be the only one to realise that, while Rodney was physically back with them, a big part of him was still in that cell.

John didn’t understand how no one else seemed to realise it.  To him, it was obvious in every move Rodney made.

Rodney always wore at least three layers of clothes now, all long sleeved, all zipped all the way up to his throat.  John was sure that if gloves were standard issue Rodney would be wearing those as well.  As it was, John never saw him without a mug of hot coffee in his hands.  Not that there was anything unusual in that; Rodney’s addiction to caffeine had reached legendary status in their first year when they had been forced to start rationing the stuff, but there was something different this time. Maybe it was the way Rodney cupped both hands around the mug when it would be too hot for most people to touch.  Maybe it was the way that the act of holding the warm liquid seemed to garner more pleasure than the drinking of it did.

The planet Rodney had been held on had been white and cold.  John had compared it to Hoth when they first walked through the gate which had made Rodney smile in the smug, pleased but slightly surprised way he always did when John made any kind of reference to his love of geek culture.  John didn’t find the planet’s Hoth like temperature funny when they rescued a shivering, barely conscious Rodney from a freezing cell a week later.

The report that Rodney submitted when he was out of danger, his body temperature back to normal and all his appendages free from frostbite, told them that heat was used as a reward for good behaviour and Rodney had given the people who held him just enough intel to keep himself alive.  He had followed every bit of guidance the SGCs classes on how to conduct yourself in a captive situation had given and John knew he should be proud of Rodney for that but every time he saw Rodney escape into his quarters with his layers of clothes, his mug of coffee and every time he saw that little spike on Atlantis’ environmental control systems that meant Rodney had cranked the heat up well past the optimum levels... John wished that Rodney had given them more. Or maybe he just wished that the captivity had taken less.  Maybe it was the same thing.

Rodney was a smart man, he _knew_ that he wasn’t cold anymore, not really, not physically but John had once spent three months in McMurdo absolutely sure that he could feel sand scraping against his skin every time he moved.  Sometimes going outside and standing in the middle of snow packed ground was the only thing that would shake the damn feeling.  That was the funny thing about the mind, sometimes, no matter how much you knew something was all in your head, it was impossible to really believe it until you had real, solid proof.

John needed to give Rodney proof.

Getting Carson to sign off on Rodney visiting the mainland was harder than John had anticipated despite Rodney having been released from the infirmary for a full two weeks but he relented once John got Teyla involved and John felt himself relax in increments as the four of them, his team, flew further and further from Atlantis.

John had cranked the heat in the jumper up to the point that even Teyla looked uncomfortable but Rodney still sat in his seat with his arms wound around his body as if he were trying to keep the cold out.

On the mainland, John parked the jumper as close to the Athosian settlement as possible, not wanting to make Rodney walk too far in the night air, even it was a pleasant night.  John’s choice of parking space meant that Rodney saw the bonfire the moment the hatch was opened.  Already the fire was stretching at least ten feet up into the air, crackling spurts of flame sending orange sparks into the sky that floated back down to Earth like fallen fireflies.

Wide eyed, Rodney moved towards the fire, his body instinctually seeking the warmth.  For the first time in four weeks, John saw the beginnings of a smile on Rodney’s face and something settled, warm and hopeful, in John’s chest at the sight of it.

Later, as they sat side by side in front of the fire, separated from the crowd and flushed with the warmth that came of sitting too close to the heat as well as the warmth that came from too much of the Athosian version of wine, Rodney tilted his head back, looked at the sky and smiled.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

John shook his head.  “Don’t thank me.  I don’t..you were gone for a week.  I should have - -“

“Thank you,” Rodney said again, cutting John off.  “Thank you for getting me out of there.  For this,” he gestured at the fire.  “I - - it was so cold and I - -“

“I know.”  It was John’s turn to interrupt.  “I get it.  This...does it help?”

Rodney unzipped his outer jacket and pulled it off, shedding one of his layers for the first time in weeks.  It was answer enough but Rodney never could let actions speak when words could be used.  “It helps,” Rodney said.  “ _You_ help.  So, thanks.”

John swallowed tightly, noticing just how beautiful Rodney looked in the glow of the flames.  God, he was glad that Rodney was back. The alternative didn’t even bear thinking about.  Maybe someday he’d act on the feelings that flooded him every time he looked at Rodney but, for now...

“Any time, buddy”

**Author's Note:**

> This fills the ‘Fire’ square of my H/C bingo card which you can see [here](https://respoftw.dreamwidth.org/19969.html#cutid1)
> 
> Please feel free to suggest which square I do next, I'm aiming for blackout!
> 
> (I did fire as hurt prompt in last years Bingo Card (go read Trial By Fire, it’s not bad!) so I though I’d attempt fire as comfort this time round.)


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